This eclectic, funny, and moving book tracks a life lived in music and words. Paul Quarrington ruminates on the bands of his childhood; his restless youth, spent playing bass with the cult band Joe Hall and the Continental Drift; and his incarnation, in middle age, as rhythm guitarist and singer with the band Porkbelly Futures.

Ranging through rock ’n’ roll, the blues, folk, country and soul, he explores how songs are made, how they work, and why they affect us so deeply. This is also a book about friendship. In his imitably entertaining way, Quarrington recounts the adventures and vicissitudes he and his fellow band members share as they cope with everything from broken strings to broken marriages, making a last stab at that elusive thing called success.